Taverna: lessons in creating a workflow environment for the life sciences

Abstract Life sciences research is based on individuals, often with diverse skills, assembled into research groups. These groups use their specialist expertise to address scientific problems. The in silico experiments undertaken by these research groups can be represented as workflows involving the co‐ordinated use of analysis programs and information repositories that may be globally distributed. With regards to Grid computing, the requirements relate to the sharing of analysis and information resources rather than sharing computational power. The my Grid project has developed the Taverna Workbench for the composition and execution of workflows for the life sciences community. This experience paper describes…